Turkish airstrike injures five civilians in Duhok village

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Five civilians, including two children, were injured on Thursday in the village of Spindar when a Turkish airstrike targeted a vehicle containing three suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members, according to residents. 

Spindar, in the Chamanke sub-district of Amedi, is 40 kilometers northeast of Duhok city. The Turkish military did not confirm the strike, but claimed to have carried similar attacks on the Hakurk region of Erbil. 

Rudaw Kurdish has not been able to establish the identity of those injured or their condition. 

According to Spindar residents, a Turkish missile struck the village at around 4.30 p.m. local time. It narrowly missed the PKK members’ car, leaving them lightly injured. 

Three civilians in a nearby shop were caught in the blast, as were two children in a neighboring house. 

Residents who spoke to Rudaw Kurdish said the PKK members were chased out of the village by an armed local, who feared the Turkish jet would launch a second strike if they remained. 

 

Although the PKK does not have a presence inside the village, locals told Rudaw the group regularly imposes taxes on them.

“We tell both Turkey and the PKK not to make our village a battleground,” an unnamed witness told Rudaw Kurdish. 

“Those injured were in the village, going about their business and work.”

“Our government keeps asking us to repopulate the villages. How can we do this if shells rain down on us on daily basis?” he asked.  

“There hasn’t been such an incident before. I challenge the Turks and others to find one PKK position in our area.”

The intensity of the airstrike shattered the windows of several homes in the villages.

Hezhar Korshid showed Rudaw’s correspondent around his home, where broken glass littered the floor.

“I was sitting here, drinking tea. A big sound came, and the glass fell on us, my family. It hit their arms, and we all hurried out,” Khorshid said.

“None of the windows of the houses around here have been left intact,” he added.

Four cars were also damaged, including the vehicle driven by suspected PKK members. Powerlines connecting Spindar to other villages in Chamanke were also damaged.

Following the incident, several families have moved their children to safety in Duhok city.

“Our children are afraid. The road is also cut. We have no other option but to leave,” Bedel Spindari told Rudaw Kurdish.

“My family is afraid. We have to leave. I was very close when the incident occurred,” his wife added.

The strike came a day after a Turkish diplomat was shot dead in an Erbil restaurant. The PKK has denied responsibility for the shooting, which Kurdish security forces are treating as a “premeditated terrorist attack”. 

The Turkish military claimed on Friday to have targeted the PKK’s camp on Qarachogh Mountain in Makhmour. 

It also claimed to have killed six PKK fighters in bombings in Metina and Gara in the Hakurk region. 

A resident of the Martyr Cudi refugee camp, which shelters PKK fighters and refugees from Turkey, confirmed to Rudaw that Turkish jets struck areas around the camp at around 12:20 a.m. on Friday.

Rojnews, media close to the PKK, claimed that two residents of the camp were injured in the bombing.